Forum Discussion
Confusion about Power Bi Report Server Licensing
Thanks for your response ThomasGebets ,
Yes, Microsoft licensing for SQL Server, including the Enterprise Edition, is core based and requires a minimum of 4 cores per physical server. So, even if you're only using 2 cores, you'll still need to license 4, effectively doubling the cost in smaller setups.
This requirement applies whether you're deploying Power BI Report Server via SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance or using SQL Server on its own.
Helpful Reference:
SQL Server 2022—Pricing | MicrosoftDid I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution.
ThomasGebets wrote:
* Is it sufficient to have on Premium per User license per customer?
No, this is not enough to use the on-prem report server, but you can use reports deployed to the service if each of your customer's users have Pro or Premium per User licenses
ThomasGebets wrote:
* What is the minimum required SQL License to use Power Bi Report Server? Can't i just use the most barebone SQL License (instead of the suggested enterprise edition for 10-15k). We need to install the db + report server on each customers device, so let's say 500 small customers that want to see their data, if you know what i mean, it isn't feasible to charge 10-15k just to see the beautiful report in a report server. đŸ™‚
This is documented here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/get-started#licensing-power-bi-report-server you need either an Enterprise license with Software Assurance or an F64 or higher reserved instance (which I believe are roughly similiar in terms of pricing)
If you only have a small number of users it would be cheaper to deploy your reports to the cloud service for Power BI instead of using Report Server.
Thanks for the reply. If offline-only is a requirement, is Power BI Report Server the only option? Because it seems that pricing is way more expensive even though, everything runs on your own hardware..
1.Yes, if your environment necessitates complete offline usage without internet access, Power BI Report Server is currently the only Microsoft-supported solution for running Power BI reports entirely on-premises.
2. The cost is associated with licensing rather than hardware usage. Power BI Report Server requires either a Power BI Premium capacity license (P1 or higher) or a SQL Server Enterprise Edition license with Software Assurance. These licensing models are designed for enterprise grade deployments.
3. If cost is a concern and limited online access is feasible, Power BI Embedded or cloud-based solutions may offer more flexibility and affordability depending on your architecture.
Thank You.
Ok thanks for clarifying, and excuse my late reply! This is also the information i got in a call with a MS support member. Only remaining question is whether the base version for SQL Enterprise is sufficient. I read somewhere that 4 cores are the minimum which would lead to a doubling of the license price, correct?
